K-1 is back and so are we. After a month without hearing Rian Scalia (@rianscalia) and myself (@liverkickdotcom / @dvewlsh) talking about Kickboxing, we are at it again. The K-1 World Grand Prix in Los Angeles happened and here are our thoughts from after the show.

Join myself and Rian Scalia as we prattle on for about 40 minutes about K-1.

This week we bring you something a bit newer and different, as Rian Scalia (@rianscalia) and myself (@LiverKickdotcom) come to you for the first time with the LiverKick podcast. We kick off with this, a test of sorts, which we recorded on Saturday night after all of the excitement surrounding the UFC show and the Amir Khan fight. There was not exactly a ton of happenings within the world of Kickboxing, but we decided to go over the fan-generated list of Fights of the Year that they've submitted.

Look for an official poll from us soon so you can vote for the Fight of the Year! We also discuss what is going on with FIKA, Cro Cop returning to K-1 action and what to look forward to in 2012.

LiverKick is on top of your kickboxing needs, as always, and after a weekend like this, well, your needs should be met. If they aren't, we are here to help. If you aren't one of those guys who frequents forums, then there is a chance that you haven't had your fill of banter, you are in the right place. That's right, instead of resting on our laurels, Rian Scalia and myself sat down and talked the talk that was needed after the two big shows this weekend. We dissect both the Glory World Series event as well as the K-1 card, take a look at the good, the bad and the downright ugly, as well as what to look for in the future.

This is the moment that Kickboxing fans across the world have been waiting for (or at least one of them), as today on K-1's [Japanese] website the matchups for the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 were posted. There will be some surprises, as a popular name associated with the K-1 World Grand Prix so far in Daniel Ghita does not appear anywhere on this bout sheet. On top of that, it was long-rumored that four fighters from the Los Angeles GP show would move on to the Final 16, but it looks like Rick Roufus will be fighting on the event, but will not be a part of the actual tournament matchups, facing Los Angeles GP undercard fighter James Wilson after his brutal KO of Doug Souer.

The next GLORY World Series event will go down this Saturday, October 6th live from Brussels, Belgium starting at 1PM Eastern time. The event will be streaming live on the GLORY home page for $15.00 USD, but why purchase the event from them when you can watch it live on LiverKick.com? You can stay right here on LiverKick to watch this event, just like the last one. The entire event will be streamed in full HD quality and purchasing the event through LiverKick helps keep your favorite Kickboxing news source online and bringing you the latest and greatest from the world of Kickboxing.

Click through for the video player and to watch an awesome preview of the event. Check out the entire fight card here.

As our astute readers are well aware now, the bad boy himself, Badr Hari, has become a bit of a celebrity of late in the celeb gossip columns in Europe for his affair with Dutch soccer legend Ruud Gullit's wife, Estelle. Many doubted the validity at first, but Estelle herself has come out and discussed it and even spoke about the two being in love. This apparently came as a shock to his former girlfriend, Daphne, as she had just given birth to their child five weeks ago. Up until last week when the news about Badr and Estelle became public, Daphne was very serious about her relationship with Badr and was planning on their family life together, and is now understandably upset.

It is unclear if Badr has spoken to her at all, as there was a statement issued through a representative of his saying he understood that she is upset and promises to help raise their child.

Many fans have been looking for answers when it comes to his recent performance just three weeks ago at K-1 Rising in Madrid. LiverKick had heard through a confidential source close to Hari that he had recently had a child with his girlfriend, but that the relationship was in trouble and plaguing him weeks prior. A gambling man would bet that issues like this dancing around in his head would not help him prepare for a fight or even participate in one. Heres hoping to a resolution to this and for Badr to be able to enter his next fight with a clear mind.

With K-1's stunning silence throughout the year 2011 there is no doubt that Dutch promotion It's Showtime has picked up the slack that K-1 left and then some. It's Showtime has grown from a smaller organization that promoted a few scattered events, which from 1999 until 2004 involved one big event a year, which eventually turned into one big event at the Amsterdam ArenA until 2005 when the promotion decided to branch out and run more events. In 2005 they held a series with Gentlemen's Promotion that revolved around a massive 75kg tournament. The next year saw them co-promote with K-1 for the first time in what turned into a longstanding and beneficial relationship for both sides until recently, when K-1 fell upon massive financial woes and It's Showtime decided to move forward in the wake of K-1's absence.

This year is primed to be It's Showtime's biggest year yet, with last year holding 7 events and this year having 6 events already on their calendar and another three to four events in the works, but it doesn't stop there. LiverKick.com has been speaking with It's Showtime officials for a while now, and have understood that It's Showtime was not just happy with European expansion and was indeed looking to expand into the United States. This led to talks with a few television stations and promotional partners, some deals falling apart and then some rumors over the past week of big things brewing for It's Showtime.

Simon Rutz is no fool, as can be seen with the gradual growth of It's Showtime over the past 12 years. It's Showtime was not simply looking for a television deal for the United States, they were looking for promotional partners. Like we've seen with all of It's Showtime's recent events, they partner up with another company for all of their shows; BFN Group, Fight Group, Fighting Stars, Oktagon and even individuals like Yiannis Evgenikos and Kader Marouf. They wanted nothing different when it came to the United States and would not even think about promoting shows here without strong support from another promotion or entity, the same goes with television. They simply did not want to be on television, they wanted a working partnership that would expand the company.

We've dug pretty deep and found out that It's Showtime and HDnet finalized a deal earlier this week that will change the kickboxing world as we know it. It's Showtime has been added to HDnet's fight library, starting as soon as the May 14th Lyon, France show. That event will be aired on the following Friday at 11pm Eastern time. It is not airing live because of the short notice for the deal working itself out. We do know that Michael Schiavello is in Lyon, France right now most likely to commentate live on the event. To say that HDnet is going to give It's Showtime the "K-1 treatment" is an understatement.

Multiple sources have claimed that HDnet actually went and bought It's Showtime, or at least bought into the company. It was announced today that HDnet will begin airing It's Showtime immediately, through an agency called Fighting Spirit. LiverKick.com has also learned that HDnet is very interested in possibly purchasing K-1 to add to their stable of original programming. HDnet has aired K-1 in the past, but this would be different. K-1 has been having financial problems and many have been critical of their management, HDnet would look to have the legendary promotion turn a corner and help fully realize its potential in the United States.

UPDATE: Andrew Simon clarified that HDnet has only purchased the rights to It's Showtime in the U.S., not outright purchasing the promotion. They will work with the promotion to promote the shows, but won't hold an actual stake in it. As for K-1, HDnet will look to possibly further air their programming when live programming is available.

Golden Glory fires yet another shot over the bow in the legal situation that is brewing between former Golden Glory team member Alistair Overeem and Golden Glory management. Overeem claims that Golden Glory was dishonest with him and were bad management to him, while Golden Glory is claiming that Alistair owes them quite a substantial amount of money as per part of his agreement with them. Now MixFight.nl has spoken with Cor Hemmers about the situation, and he feels like Overeem is way out of line.

"The management made a great deal for Alistair with the UFC. Alistair was very happy with this deal himself. During the negotiations the management spoke with Alistair about the changes being made to all of the agreements, and during the final stages of the negotiations both the management and UFC sent Alistair all of the documents for his comments and approval. Alistair went on his way to ZUFFA headquarters in Las Vegas where he would sign the contract himself. And that’s where Alistair decided to change course…”

“I feel it’s a setup” says Cor, “because Alistair wasn’t satisfied with the percentages for the trainers and the management . In fact, he tried to lower the percentages for the trainers when it became clear that his income would increase in the near future. Alistair wanted to discuss a new compensation system more in the form of a fixed fee and not based on percentages. Although we have no say in this – it’s a deal between the management and Alistair – he talked about this with Martijn de Jong and me after a training session. I am disappointed in the way he acts now and the financial proposal that he made to Martijn which was way below the regular percentage for trainers. I have always felt it’s a team effort to get these boys including Alistair to the highest level of the sport."

He ends the interview with "a contract is a contract," which seems to be the prevailing mindset within the camp. From what Cor says here, it appears that Overeem was looking to alter his contract with Golden Glory to make it look more like a management contract from the United States, including paying the trainers separately, based on a flat fee as opposed to the percentage of the management contracts that they are currently paid per fighter. We'll have more on this story when it is available. [source]

Lots of professional MMA fighters have gotten the itch to bring over high level Kickboxers into their camps over the past year. Well, it appears that Jerome Le Banner is finally getting the call and is in the United States. He keeps good company. JLB has apparently been training at KINGS MMA now with Rafael Cordiero. It feels like Chute Boxe all over again, go figure. Maybe Jerome Le Banner is training for a fight in December at GENKI DESUKA!, even. We went ahead and asked him as soon as the show was announced, and he said that he is definitely onboard if they want him.

Over the weekend at UFC 140 the two featured bouts of the evening saw exciting finishes by two of UFC’s bigger stars. Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir took the fight to another former [Interim] UFC Heavyweight Champion in Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, surviving being knocked out by quickly reversing a choke and applying an armlock and promptly breaking Big Nog’s arm. Current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones put on an equally as impressive finish after recovering from being outpointed on his feet to working the challenger Lyoto Machida over with elbows on the ground before he was able to corner the challenger and apply a neck chancre that rendered Machida unconscious.

As a fan, it is hard to complain about fights at this level being finished in thrilling fashion. So, while it may be hard to complain about the fights being finished in a dramatic, decisive fashion, there are some other, much more troubling trends in both of these fights that have gone largely unnoticed amidst the excitement. Behavior of fighters has changed, as fans have noticed over the past few years, with both of the featured fights this weekend making light of this. Big Nog suffered a broken arm at the hands of Frank Mir, Nog still laying on the mat while Mir quickly pulled on the gear from his sponsors and celebrated. Jon Jones claimed that he “knew” Lyoto Machida was out cold, but quickly let go to strut off while Machida fell head-first to the mat in a heap.

It is a matter of respect and concern for the opponent’s well-being that seemingly melted away over the past few years, being flaunted on-air at UFC 140. It is a paradigm shift that has occured in the rush to help “legitimize” MMA as a “real sport” in the United States.

Continue reading about "Bushido."

Those trends make light of the divergence of eastern and western philosophy within the sport of Mixed Martial Arts as a whole. Part of what made the development of MMA as special and interesting as it was revolved around the core beliefs and ideals that served as the base of the sport. The sport was founded as a mixture of many forms of Martial Arts, and Martial Arts largely follow a set of rules for conduct. To many, these concepts of bushido, or the warrior’s way will not be unfamiliar. The “Martial Way” as it is called is a code of honor that Martial Artists adhere to, not only in combat, but also in their day-to-day lives. It involves respect for everyone, including opponents and things, handling one’s self in a respectable manner and many other basic laws that very much reflect the “golden rule” that we all [should] know.

Even a fallen samurai in battle was given the option of an honorable death by the hands of the better man, and dishonored men were given a chance to regain their honor through self-sacrifice in many parts of the world. “Honor” is a large part of eastern cultures such as Japan, one of the true birthplaces of MMA. It seems that as Japan’s dominance begins to fade in the world of MMA, so does that honor that was instilled in it. Frank Mir was able to capitalize on the grave mistake of Big Nog going for a choke, allowing Mir to clear his cobwebs and secure a kimura lock. While Mir did mention Nog in his post-fight speech, there was no on-camera interaction of Mir making sure that Nog was alright, knowing that breaking his arm has possibly taken a year off of his career in the twilight of such a decorated career. After the fight at a press conference, Mir discussed the possibility of him stepping into another possible match with Brock Lesnar or even yet another title shot if the contenders bout between Alistair Overeem and Brock Lesnar does not live up to its hype. This happened while Big Nog faces future surgeries and almost a year’s worth of recovery time before he can resume his training. Frank Mir’s actions may have abruptly ended the career of another fighter, something that should make Mir reflect on his methods and actions.

Jon Jones not only thanked his lord and savior, Jesus Christ on Twitter before the fight, but made sure to afterwards in his interview with Joe Rogan. In this same interview, Jon Jones made sure that it was clear he was absolutely certain that Lyoto Machida was out cold before he relinquished the hold that sent Lyoto crashing head first to the mat as his body went limp. Jones, of course, went over to Lyoto who was being attended to by a medical team to shake his hand, but only after his coach, Greg Jackson was heard trying to get the Champion’s attention, urging him to “make some fans” by checking on the battered contender. Jones seemed to not be concerned with the six foot one Machida tumbling that six feet to the ground when he let go of the hold, instead he seemed content to confidently strut away to celebrate in a display that has become the equivalent to an end zone dance in football when a player scores a touchdown.

What is telling is that these actions do not seem to really be bothering that many people. When one of the true legends and pioneers in the sport of MMA in Erik Paulson goes on record to condemn these actions, you know that there has been a paradigm shift within the sport. What might be even more telling is the throngs of posters on larger sites like BloodyElbow who seem to consider the lack of sportsmanship to be considered all a “part of the game” and that there is nothing alarming about it. When Shinya Aoki showed a serious lack of sportsmanship two years ago, breaking Mizuto Hirota’s arm then flipping him and the arena off, media in Japan were quick to shame Aoki for his actions, as were Western journalists, pundits and fans. Now, almost two years later there are two similar (although not as extreme) actions on the same card and fans are finding ways to quickly dismiss said actions and chalk it up to a part of the sport.

If anything, this highlights how the “eastern allure” that Mixed Martial Arts once held, that the honor, the conduct and the Martial Way has been slowly expunged from the sport to make way for the showmanship and intensely competitive, un-bushido-like behavior showcased in some western sports. It seems that in the rush to “legitimize” MMA as a sport that it had to be gentrified to fit into the mold of the west, and that fans can expect more in the way of in-ring “touchdown dances” than signs of brotherhood and respect.